Mick Schumacher was always destined for a career in Formula 1, according to former rival and current VHT S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship leader Joey Mawson.

Schumacher and Mawson went toe-to-toe for the 2016 ADAC Formula 4 Championship crown, with the latter eventually coming out on top.

Mawson has since competed in categories including Formula 3, Porsche Supercup and Porsche Carrera Cup Germany, before returning home to Australia.

Schumacher, three years Mawson’s junior, meanwhile went on to clinch the 2020 Formula 2 championship and secure a promotion to F1 via Haas, making his debut last month in Bahrain.

On reflection, Mawson acknowledged there was always something special about the German son of seven-time F1 world champion Michael.

“He was definitely different,” Mawson told Speedcafe.com of Mick.

“From his very first race, I saw he had a talent of being able to position himself well on the opening laps – which was something I had, but I was surprised he had it already in his very first car race.

“He just naturally knew where to position himself in the opening scrambles and scraps. Naturally he was a very good overtaker.

“Funnily enough he was similar to me where qualifying has always been his weakness. So yeah, I see a lot of similarities.

“Already from a young age I see a lot of his traits that he’s kept in Formula 1 now and if anything he has just fixed a lot of his weaknesses, like qualifying seems to have improved.

“In his first year he tended to make a little bit of rookie mistakes, just trying too hard. I see a little bit of that scraped out, particularly in his second year, he started to clean up the weekends and then the natural pace just starts to show.”

From being arch-rivals, Mawson is now cheering on Schumacher in his pursuit to replicate his famous father’s achievements.

“With his results last year in F2, he’s earned the right on merit to have a seat in Formula 1,” said the 25-year-old.

“So I was really happy to see that, myself, because it also just reflects better on me because I beat him in F4.

“I’m really hoping to see him do well. Obviously it’s a tough situation, coming from your whole career winning races to running at the back of the grid at Haas, and realistically just trying to score points is like a win.

“But yeah, I really hope to see him do well and one day hopefully we see him become world champion at Ferrari.”

As for his own exploits, Mawson will have the chance to wrap up the inaugural S5000 title at the Sydney Motorsport Park finale across April 30 to May 2.